Household Fitness in the New Year
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
David from Belgium trains balance first thing
Ivy from New Zealand uses a half squat to functionally strengthen her legs and prevent back pain while making the bed.See - Bending Right is Fitness as a Lifestyle.
Feeding the dog.
How often do you bend around the house in a day?
See - How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending
How often do you bend around the house in a day?
See - How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending
Vacuuming with a good half-squat. See - Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending
full squat for chores with feet facing the same direction as knees, and both heels down
A Thai villager sits straight, getting nice hip stretch, and keeps ankles straight- see Unhealthy Yoga Ankles
Our friend MomPon is relative to the abbot of the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback near the border of Myanmar (Burma). We stayed with her during the time we spent at the monastery. She sits straight and comfortably in full squat to get things for dinner from her garden, then to wash dishes in her kitchen. We do the same when we help. She stands straight with chin in to reach overhead to get tamarind fruit from her tree, see - Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain.
A hill tribe mother stands straight without rounding forward or leaning backward from the weight of her baby -Healthier Carrying - Get Free Ab Exercise and Stop Pain
and
Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain
A villager takes his children for a fun ride, while sitting straight. See how a reader fixed upper body pain from biking in Freed From Pain, He Rides Again
Sitting straight to wash the kids.
I gave these villagers soap bubbles for their baby. They played for hours.Enjoy life, laugh, and share good times.
Labels: balance, biking, children, gardening, lunge, posture, sitting, squat
2 Comments:
At Thursday, January 03, 2008 7:45:00 AM,
David said…
Great post! And not only because I'm in it. ;-)
At Friday, January 16, 2009 3:09:00 PM,
f. kwan said…
Hi Jolie,
I commented somewhere else but forgot where so I couldn't see if you replied. :)
I am 53 years old and have NEVER been able to squat, lunge, or bend without pain. I also have almost no sense of balance. 17 years ago I was run over while walking and had three ankle reconstructive surgeries. I am a medical transcriptionist and have to commute an hour a day so I sit way too much. I suspect any leg length discrepancies plus this lifestyle contributed to a disc bulge. One of the manifestations of this, or else a knee injury, is that I cannot bend to touch my right foot and when my right leg is crossed, instead of being at a 90 degree angle, it's about a 70-80.
However...when I tried to practice squatting, even holding onto a barre at the gym, I somehow aggravated either the above mentioned knee injury and/or the disc bulge. I had severe radiculopathy from knee to ankle that would not go away even with standard PT exercises.
Then I tried your improved piriformis stretch and began to sit in my chair with neutral spine and the problem cleared up almost instantaneously.
However, I am scared that trying to squat again will aggravate the same problem. I can get up and down from a chair, climb stairs and half squat, but I can not get up from a lunge without help or squat further than 90 degrees without excruciating pain in knees and thighs. Even when I try to keep my back straight and heels on the ground I don't seem to be able to do this past about 90 degrees (holding onto something) without my back pitching forward. I have an additional problem in that there is hardware in my left foot so at any provocation my heel tends to come up off the ground with stress.
I have ordered your pain book and ab book which should be arriving any day now.
Any hints you can give me will be most welcome. Again, your neutral spine chair exercise and improved piriformis stretch are miraculous.
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